THE FA has been fined nearly £4,000 by FIFA after England fans let off incendiary devices and threw plastic bottles during last month’s World Cup qualifier against Lithuania.
England were also warned for the paper aeroplanes fans threw at Wembley four days earlier during the match against Slovenia – both games were 1-0 wins for Gareth Southgate’s side.
These decisions were among a large batch of announcements to come from Tuesday’s meeting of the FIFA disciplinary committee, with 41 member associations sanctioned for offences during the October international break.
Lithuania were also fined 5,000 Swiss francs (£3,800) for “improper conduct among spectators” during the England game, while the United States were warned for their fans’ paper planes during their match against Panama.
Serbia, however, received the biggest sanction, two fines totalling 160,000 Swiss francs (£122,000), for their fans’ behaviour during the games in Austria and at home against Georgia.
They were punished for letting off incendiary devices and displaying discriminatory and political banners.
Those were common offences, particularly supporters’ continuing use of flares and other pyrotechnics, but there were also fines for booing the national anthem, delayed kick-offs and pitch invasions.
But the most common issue in Central and South America was abusive or homophobic chanting, with Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru all fined for this in their final World Cup qualifiers.
Argentina were fined just over £30,000 – their 10th fine during this campaign alone, with eight of them being for homophobic chanting.
Chile have to fork out about £15,000 for their 11th homophobic-chanting sanction in two years.
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